s to match, one
Pompadour bathing-suit, one dressing-gown, one close-fitting Medicis
mantle, two opera cloaks----"

"And I was certainly not the most elegantly attired of the ladies at
Trouville, where I spent the month of July," interrupted the baroness.

"There are but few entries in the month of August," continued
Van Klopen. "We have: a morning-dress, a travelling-dress, with
trimmings----" And he went on and on, gasping for breath, rattling off
the ridiculous names which he gave to his "creations," and interrupted
every now and then by the blow of a clinched fist on the table, or by a
savage oath.

Pascal stood in the smoking-room, motionless with astonishment. He did
not know what surprised him the most, Van Klopen's impudence in daring
to read such a bill, the foolishness of the woman who had ordered all
these things, or the patience of the husband who was undoubtedly going
to pay for them. At last, after what seemed an interminable enumeration,
Van Klopen exclaimed: "And that's all!"

"Yes, that's all," repeated the baroness, like an echo.

"That's all!" exclaimed the baron--"that's all! That is to say, in four
months, at least seven hundred yards of silk, velvet, satin, and muslin,
have been put on this woman's back!"

"The dresses of the present day require a great deal of material.
Monsieur le Baron will understand that flounces, puffs, and ruches----"

"Naturally! Total, twenty-seven thousand francs!"

"Excuse me! Twenty-seven thousand nine hundred and thirty-three francs,
ninety centimes."

"Call it twenty-eight thousand francs then. Ah, well, M. Van Klopen, if
you are ever paid for this rubbish it won't be by me."

If Van Klopen was expecting this denouement, Pascal wasn't; in fact,
he was so startled, that an exclamation escaped him which would have
betrayed his presence under almost any other circumstances. What amazed
him most was the baron's perfect calmness, following, as it did, such
a fit of furious passion, violent enough even to be heard in the
vestibule. "Either he has extraordinary control over himself or this
scene conceals some mystery," thought Pascal.

Meanwhile, the man-milliner continued to urge his claims--but the baron,
instead of replying, only whistled; and wounded by this breach of good
manners, Van Klopen at last exclaimed: "I have had dealings with all the
distinguished men in Europe, and never before did one of them refuse to
pay me for his wife's toilettes."

"Very